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INFORMATION 



IN REGARU 
TO 



CORN CLUBS 

FOR 

ALABAMA BOYS 




ISSUED BY 
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

1910 



iROWN FTQ. CO. MONTGOMt^T, Al^. 






D. Of 0. 

MAR 5 I9m 



INTRODUCTION. 

The 1900 Census report shows that the people of 
Alabama engaged in gainful occupation are distrib- 
uted as follows: 

Professional services 2 % 

Trade and transportation 6.7% 

Manufacturing and mechanical 10.3% 

Domestic and personal service 13.4% 

Agricultural pursuits 67.6% 

This shows that a large per cent of our people in 
Alabama are making a living by farming and that 
all other occupations sink into insignificance when 
compared with agriculture. The very location, cli- 
mate and soil of Alabama make it essentially an ag- 
ricultural State. Any effort, therefore, on the part 
of the schools, colleges and educational forces to 
educate the people along agricultural lines and to 
improve farming methods, will directly increase the 
earning capacity of the only producing class and 
hence largely benefit the whole people. 

For many years agriculture was not taught in our 
schools because it was thought that there was noth- 
ing to learn about farming, that the various subjects 
along agricultural lines had no educational value, 
that culture could not be obtained by a study of the 
origin and formulation of soils, of how the plants 
live and grow, and of the different kinds of animals 
and how they are fed. Now, however, the idea that 
time properly spent on these subjects will give as 
much mental discipline as the same amount of time 
spent on other subjects of the school curricula is 
rapidly gaining ground, and agriculture has a funda- 
mental place in the courses of study of practically all 
of our schools. 

Again in the Census report for 1900. we learn that 
of the 20,685,427 acres of farm lands in Alabama only 
41.8'7r, or less than half, is improved and mider cul- 
tivation. It is one of the problems of agricultural 
education to aid in the development of the other 
58.2% of this farming land, as well as to see that bet- 
ter methods are used on the farms under cultivation. 
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The 1909 Crop Report shows that Alabama produced 
a total of 43,646,000 bushels of corn on 3,233,000 acres 
of land, or an average of only 13.5 bushels per acre, 
valued at 37,099,000 dollars. This made it necessary 
for Alabama to purchase approximately 11,000,000 
bushels of corn for 1909. Corn is the main food sup- 
ply on the farm, and if the farmer has sufficient corn 
he will also raise his meat, and an ample supply of 
these two food articles on the farm therefore indi- 
cates thrift and prosperity in any community. It is 
a well established fact that no agricultural section can 
prosper as it should and purchase a large amount of 
its main food supply. With a little better preparation 
of the soil, better seed, more intelligent use of ferti- 
lizers and' better cultivation of the crop, it would be 
an easy matter to double the yield of corn in Ala- 
bama, and thereby increase the wealth of the farmers 
of the State 37,099,000 dollars annually from corn 
alone. 

OBJECTS OP THE CORN CLUB MOVEMENT. 

The objects of organizing the boys under twenty- 
one years old in Alabama into Corn Clubs are to in- 
crease the production of corn, to improve the seed, 
to aid the farmer in better methods of cultivation 
and a more intelligent use of fertilizers, to increase 
the interest of the farm boys in agriculture, and to- 
encourage them to get an education along agricultural 
lines and remain on the farm. Of course arousing in- 
terest in one crop will lead to similar lines of work 
with other crops and will ultimately result in more 
careful study of methods with all lines of farming. 
This will lead to increased production on the farm 
and will lay the foundations for better schools, better 
roads, better churches, improvement of the social life 
in the rural districts and a more contented and happy 
people. 

PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 

As this work is an educational matter it is our pur- 
pose to secure and promote co-operation of the county 
superintendents, teachers and schools. It is hoped 

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and urged, therefore, that every county superintend- 
ent will become interested in this and that every 
teacher will see that several boys in each school and 
community are members of some Corn Club . 

It has been found best in most cases to enlist the 
interest of the county superintendent and secure a 
list of all the teachers in the county where the work 
is undertaken. A letter is then addressed to each of 
these teachers requesting the names of boys who are 
interested in the movement. 

The main work for the present will be with corn. 
In each county where the work is undertaken prizes 
will be offered to the boy growing the greatest num- 
ber of bushels per acre and also to the boy exhibit- 
ing, at a meeting in the fall, the ten best ears of 
corn. Prizes for each county will be announced to 
the boys as soon as the money for the prizes is con- 
tributed. 

No particular method of culture will be prescribed 
but plenty of literature on the best methods of corn 
raising will be furnished the boys from time to time. 

WHO MAY BECOME MEMBERS. 

It is our desire to have every boy, not over twenty- 
one years old and large enough to work on the farm, 
becomes a member of the Corn Club in the community 
where this work is started. We wish especially to 
have boys who live on the farm engaged in this work, 
or if a man owns a farm and lives in town his son 
may also become a member, or if a boy has no land 
and has enough interest in the work to rent the land 
and enter the club, we shall be glad to have him 
also. 

BOYS' CORN CLUBS. 

By Harry C. Gunnels. Superintendent of Education 
of Alabama. 

During a recent trip of the Southern States Super- 
intendents of Education through the Middle West in 
an endeavor to study the work of the rural schools 
as this work relates to rural life, I was asked to 
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make an especial study of the accomplishment of 
Boys' Corn Clubs. 

In making this rapid study, I had in mind the 
question as to whether the organization of these 
clubs as they exist in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and 
other states of the Middle West, could' be made ap- 
plicable to conditions in the southern states, and es- 
pecially to Alabama, 

The great awakening of a sentiment among all 
classes of people towards an education looking to the 
betterment of our farms and of our rural conditions 
makes the study of any question relating to farm life 
and farm work a pleasant one. 

The State of Iowa is in many respects — in size, 
nature of soil, mineral products and in other things, 
similar to Alabama. Climatic conditions in Alabama 
are far superior. The seasons are longer. 

It occurred to me, therefore, that there must be a 
reason for the fact that in Iowa from seventy-five to 
one hundred' and twenty bushels of corn are made on 
an acre while in Alabama, on soil equally as good, 
with climatic conditions much better, there is a yield 
of twenty-five or thirty bushels per acre, I could 
not help thinking that there must be a reason why 
farm lands in Iowa are worth from $100 to $300 an 
acre while lands equally as valuable for farming pur- 
poses in Alabama can be purchased for $20.00 or 
$30.00 per acre. 

la seemed to me that there must be a reason for 
the prosperous condition of the farmers in the Middle 
West. If a farmer with a small farm purchased at 
$2.50 per acre in Iowa, on credit perhaps, can have an 
elegant home, educate his children, dash around the 
country in an automobile, why can not such condi- 
tions exist in the South — in Alabama. 

In my study of this question, I came to the conclu- 
sion that the prosperous condition of this Western 
section of our country— the granary of the world — is 
the direct result of a system of education which from 
the kindergarten almost has had for its object the in- 
culcating in the minds of the bj.vs, and of the girls, 
that there is a dignity in labor, that there is no dis- 
grace in working on the farm, that farm life is the 
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most pleasant of all life, that more money can be 
made by raising corn and wheat than in selling rib- 
bons and' pins, that the girl has more freedom in 
looking after dairy and can make more money for 
herself than she can by doing clerical work in some 
city office, and that above all by putting the same 
amount of brains into the soil — into the actual work 
of the farm life — greater returns in every way can 
be brought about. 

One of the organizations which my investigation 
disclosed as a potent factor in this line of endeavor is 
what is known as the Boys' Corn Clubs. These clubs 
exist in almost all the rural schools in Iowa, Wis- 
consin, Minnesota and the other corn growing states. 
I discovered that an enthusiasm and an interest and a 
rivalry existed which naturally brought about the 
very best results. 

A farmer in Iowa told me that six years ago he 
was making an average of forty bushels of corn per 
acre. A Boys' Corn Club was organized in the district 
school. His fourteen year old boy came to him and 
asked for an acre of land upon which to make his ex- 
periments. The fourteen year old boy did all the 
work, selected the seed and the fertilizers, planned 
himself, under the advice perhaps of his teacher, the 
method of cultivation and at the end of the year this 
acre of land which had been yielding about forty 
bushels of corn produced one hundred and thirty-six 
bushels. This old German farmer said to me that he 
immediately came to the conclusion that if his four- 
teen year old boy could make one hundred and thirty- 
six bushels of corn on an acre where he had bef-n 
making only forty it was time for him to get busy. 
He said that as an experiment he took the boy out 
of school for a year and put him in charge of the 
corn growing on his farm. The results were marvel- 
lous. In six years the average yield of corn on this 
farm has increased at least 100%. The value of the 
farm has increased equally as much. The boy, so the 
farmer said, would graduate next year from the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin where he is making a specialty 
of Agriculture and would "come back to the farm." 
This farmer stated that there were numerous other 



non-progressive farmers like himself among his 
friends who had gotten inspiration from the work 
done by the boys and had taken hold of advanced 
methods in cultivation of corn and other farm prod- 
ucts. This condition, I was told, exists in almost 
every corn growing state and has been largely 
brought about through the instrumentality of enthu- 
siastic members of Boys' Corn Clubs or similar orga- 
nizations. 

Conditions in the states of the Middle West are 
somewhat different from conditions in the so nth. 
The rural schools, the high schools, the agricultural 
schools are more closely articulated and con elated 
with the universities than similar schools are in the 
south. The universities place greater stress upon 
every endeavor looking to the increase of interest ir> 
farm life and farm work. 

It will be some time before in the southern states 
this close relationship can be brought to fruition. 
It must come, however. It will come. The tendency 
of the present thought is that something must be done 
to get out of the soil, which nature has given us, the 
best that there is in it and to make the farm and 
farm life as enjoyable and as uplifting as city life. 

The work of the National Department of Agricul- 
ture is tending largely along this line and through 
the efforts of Dr. Knapp and Mr. Martin numbers of 
boys' clubs have been organized in Alabama and in 
the southern states. 

Nothing but good can come from this work. My 
investigation of the results in the Middle West con- 
vince me that great good could and would come from 
it. 

The State Department of Education of Alabama is 
encouraging in every way the organization of these 
clubs and the speakers who go from this Department 
over the state are stressing this line of work. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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002 681 982 9 ^ 



